Joanne, John and Sophie completely ignore one another's strange behaviour

After reading the primary task brief, the team decides who should stay in the living room, with Sophie stating that she’s happy to do so. John then heads outside to find the watermelon, and Sophie drops her first utterance of the word “umbrella”.

Once outside, John lets his team-members know that the watermelon is on the stage, and also grabs a set of drums from the hutch. As John states that they need to use something to reach the watermelon, Sophie blurts out “umbrella” once more. She then blurts out “umbrella” once again, in agreeance with the suggestion that Joanne re-reads the task brief. As Sophie is befuddled about what’s going on, Joanne tells her that she has to stay inside to receive the watermelon. This prompts Sophie to state that she feels “like an umbrella”, which bumps her count up to four.

John grabs the long seat cushions from the caravan, and places them on the stage, before going to fetch a loo roll from the bathroom. As this happens, Joanne suggests that John could roll the watermelon onto her, and then lies down in front of the stage. John returns with a sled from the shed and loo roll from the toilet, thus completing his secret task. Sophie then shouts “umbrella” again, completing her own secret task. As John asks Alex about what counts as stepping on the stage, Joanne stands back up after lying down for 30 seconds, and thus completes her own secret task.

The footage cuts back to Sophie, who admits that she still has no idea what’s going on, before blurting out “umbrella” once more, as she watches John grab some more cushions. As Joanne grabs a net for the watermelon, Sophie says the word “umbrella” twice more, while she thinks of ways to hook the watermelon.

Joanne nets the watermelon and lands it on the cushions, as Sophie yet again shouts “umbrella”. Joanne and John then run towards Sophie with the watermelon in the net, but no-one can remember whether she’s permitted to touch the watermelon herself. Everyone rushes to find the task brief, only to find that it’s actually in John’s back pocket. During this search, Sophie utters “umbrella” two more times, one of which is when she calls John “an umbrella” for misplacing the task brief.

After confirming that they can all touch the watermelon, Sophie grabs the net – stating that it feels like carrying an umbrella, due to the weight – and then places it on the table. Once everybody has gathered outside, Sophie complains that there was no umbrella, bringing her final “umbrella” count to a staggering 15 – three times as many as were required.

In the studio, Greg characterises the trio’s attempt as a metaphor for life, since nobody was listening to anyone else. He then comments on Sophie’s overuse of the word “umbrella”, observing that she wasn’t even trying to be discreet about it, towards the end. She explains that she’d wanted to make sure that Joanne and John got it, “but without getting it”. Greg also points out that neither John nor Sophie had noticed Joanne lying on the ground, and Joanne adds that John hadn’t even noticed when he was standing right next to her. John responds by claiming that the more time he’d spent with Joanne and Sophie, the less likely he was to notice such strange behaviour.

As the team of three were the only ones to complete the task, they each receive 5 points, plus the 2 bonus points from their secret tasks.

(Written by M3 / Andres Sanchez and proofread by Karl Craven)

(Illustrations collected by Jenny R and adjusted by David Fuller)